Read to your child every day. Make this a warm and loving time when the two of you can cuddle close together. Bedtime is an especially great time for reading together.

Tips#2: Give Everything A Name

You can build comprehension skills early, even with the littlest child. Play games that involve naming or pointing to objects. Say things like, "Where's your nose?" and then, "Where's Mommy's nose?" Or touch your child's nose and say, "What's this?"

An almost unbelievable 60% of school leavers in South Africa are claimed to possess a lack of numeracy and lingual competencies. Checking out the school leavers end exams, it is even more obvious that relatively few learners actually took or passed the maths class. This situation creates a problem for youngsters wishing to pursue their studies at tertiary level or partake in careers requiring numeracy skills. You, as a parent, should be aware of the situation and accept some accountability in the academic wellfare of your child. School education is focused on equipping youngsters to handle life, but the education of your child begins before school in aiding your youngster in the learning process, also in numeracy. Learning really should be fun and the introduction of games in this regard aids the parent in this task. So also is the case with learning numeracy competencies through for example multiplication games.

Tips#3: Say How Much You Enjoy Reading Together

Tell your child how much you enjoy reading with him or her. Look forward to this time you spend together. Talk about "story time" as the favorite part of your day.

Tips#4: Be Interactive

Engage your child so he or she will actively listen to a story. Discuss what's happening, point out things on the page, and answer your child's questions. Ask questions of your own and listen to your child's responses.

Numeracy games, including multiplication games, can begin as little as 2-3 years of age and continue up to grade 9 or over and above. These games are made to be enjoyable, but shape the young mind to understand basic fundamentals of maths in logical sequence and steps. The greatest challenge of math coaching is to make sure that learners understand and is comfortable in the basic principles. Without a good foundation in the basic principles having to learn the more complex principles of maths becomes an uphill struggle for the pupils and many give in to the struggle even before grade 10. To give your children the best opportunity in successfully completing maths in school, present numeracy and multiplication games at an early age and continue with this essential function until at the very least grade 9. A lot of us parents proudly teach our children to count to ten, only to display the ability to the grandmother and grandfather, as a show of cleverness, rather as the first step toward continued math education. That's fine, but that is only the start. Counting to 10, parrot fashion, is one thing, but counting to 10 or 20 or 30 in time by understanding the logic behind addition is another thing and it is in this understanding that the basic principles of maths is perfected. Not only can we teach our children the basic principles of maths in a enjoyable way, but we can concurrently lay the foundation for logical thinking by the introduction of educational games like multiplication games.

Universities are increasingly reporting high numbers of 1st year pupils not making the grade and ascribe this pheromone to young people not being numeracy and literacy proficient to a level to address tertiary studies. Not only does such a problem become a problem to the failed student but it even more places a tremendous burden on the capability of Universities to train much needed skills for our economy, especially in the engineering and scientific fields. Clearly this situation further also places unnecessary pressure on the financial and other sources of our universities and colleges.Let us parents do anything we can in order to alleviate this by introducing a planned learning curve for our kids in a fun way by the introduction of educative games, such as multiplication games.

Tips#5: Read It Again And Again And Again

Your child will probably want to hear a favorite story over and over. Go ahead and read the same book for the 100th time! Research suggests that repeated readings help children develop language skills.

Tips#6: Talk About Writing, Too

Draw your child's attention to the way writing works. When looking at a book together, point out how we read from left to right and how words are separated by spaces.